Metz,Steve. Brainy Science. The Science Teacher. January 2007, p.8.
This article by Steve Metz is discussing new studies that have been going on about the human brain. The article gives a brief description of how the Human brain differs from our close relatives Chimpanzies, and then describes many of the functions the human brain is responsible for. Then the article shifts to a study that is being done on Teenage brains. Not many studies are done on teenage brains, most studies are concentrating on children or adult brains. This study on the teenage brains may show that many problems that children have in school, such as forgetting to study for a test, or not doing homework, or innattention may be due to an immature prefrontal cortex. This study may be interesting to teachers because the article states that there could be a new syndrome called "teenage brain syndrome" which would explain these children with slow developing prefrontal cortex. Also with these intense studies of the brain there may be some new teaching strategies that can be developed which will help all students learn better. This article was simply bringing up the recent studies done on teenage brains, but they are nowhere near done exploring aspects of the human brain. The article was just giving a heads up on how studying the human brain may someday be beneficial for teachers and students everywhere.
I feel that these studies on the human brain are extremely interesting, especially since they may affect the field of teaching someday. Maybe these scientist will find something out about the teenage brain that will allow us to teach with new methods in the classroom that will make the information sink in better than methods we are currently using. There are many studies out there about the brain, and how much information students can retain and which methods are best suited for the classroom. WIth recent studies on the brain many of the prior ideas we have about teachign may be tweeked or completely changed all together. There are many questions on how students seem to be so forgetful sometimes, and many times they are punished and labeled as immature. Maybe these studies will prove that they actually have a syndrome which is causing them to act the way they do when they are in the classroom. Anytime studies can be done that will allow teachers to gain more information about their students, then I feel it is a good idea to investigate these situations. I'm not sure how long it will take for scientist to gain this knowledge, but I am looking forward to more studies involving the teenage brain.
This article by Steve Metz is discussing new studies that have been going on about the human brain. The article gives a brief description of how the Human brain differs from our close relatives Chimpanzies, and then describes many of the functions the human brain is responsible for. Then the article shifts to a study that is being done on Teenage brains. Not many studies are done on teenage brains, most studies are concentrating on children or adult brains. This study on the teenage brains may show that many problems that children have in school, such as forgetting to study for a test, or not doing homework, or innattention may be due to an immature prefrontal cortex. This study may be interesting to teachers because the article states that there could be a new syndrome called "teenage brain syndrome" which would explain these children with slow developing prefrontal cortex. Also with these intense studies of the brain there may be some new teaching strategies that can be developed which will help all students learn better. This article was simply bringing up the recent studies done on teenage brains, but they are nowhere near done exploring aspects of the human brain. The article was just giving a heads up on how studying the human brain may someday be beneficial for teachers and students everywhere.
I feel that these studies on the human brain are extremely interesting, especially since they may affect the field of teaching someday. Maybe these scientist will find something out about the teenage brain that will allow us to teach with new methods in the classroom that will make the information sink in better than methods we are currently using. There are many studies out there about the brain, and how much information students can retain and which methods are best suited for the classroom. WIth recent studies on the brain many of the prior ideas we have about teachign may be tweeked or completely changed all together. There are many questions on how students seem to be so forgetful sometimes, and many times they are punished and labeled as immature. Maybe these studies will prove that they actually have a syndrome which is causing them to act the way they do when they are in the classroom. Anytime studies can be done that will allow teachers to gain more information about their students, then I feel it is a good idea to investigate these situations. I'm not sure how long it will take for scientist to gain this knowledge, but I am looking forward to more studies involving the teenage brain.
Anthony S.